I actualy find myself refreshed when reading posts from El Duderino or I'm Squirrel. Not because they are always right(mostly in my perspective), but because it's associated with the truth which apparently the Guru community fears above anything else. It's as if they are still stuck in the trailer videos long before gw2 launched and are now desperatly trying to justify the shortcommings of this game. You can see it(feel it) in every second post. That subtle hint of disappointment coupled with overexaturated praise...it's just so blatently obvious.

Like this:

Darkobra, on 04 May 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

You're absolutely right! In all of the above, I can get to level 20 in a day!

...As if the level speed has anything to do with what the author of this post was trying to say, or even with the general grind all together.

I agree that the grind in this game is ridiculus at points. Far far far beyond what WoW had/has. The sheer fact that any real material like lodestones can not be gathered while just doing the casual farming here & there. The carrot on the stick legendary which is the actual gw2 end-game, and again the depth-lacking monthly updates, which while cute seem to be there to divert the attention from the real issues and break the monotony of this game.

UPDATE 6.29.13:Added two Trickery based builds due to the major update to the trait-line on 6.25.13. The other builds' functionality has not really been changed. The only thing worth mentioning is that the SB's ability to apply AoE weakness has been reduced.

Loperdos’ preface: I am by no means an expert on thieves, this is a build that I’ve been kicking around for the last couple weeks because I was curious if it could be done. In the 350+ hours I’ve played on a thief, I wanted to see if I could run with a build that was a bit different, albeit not unique (given the immutable law of the internet).

I am fully cognizant of the fact that ranged DPS is quite a bit lower than melee DPS. Pure DPS is not the purpose of this particular build, if that’s what you are looking for, look for a D/X backstab build, which will net you the most and highest damage. That being said, the purpose of this build and the variant below (created by Phenn) is to provide an outline for a different weapon-set than most thieves are accustomed to using. Some of the things that are different about this build as compared to other PvE builds is that you do not have to enter melee range, you have high mobility and survivability through that mobility, decent single target damage, great AoE and group utility.

Special thanks to Phenn for helping me work through this build and being there for the theorycrafting and testing phases.

Since the guide is a P/P and SB guide, it would be pretty silly to state that the weapons are anything different. Sigil of Accuracy + Ruby Orb on the pistols and Accuracy on the SB.

The main reason for stacking crit is because as a P/P SB build, you will be running and gunning less damage overall than a melee, its just the nature of GW2, so stacking crit is going to help increase overall damage.

Another major reason is that having a limited number of init regen skills (which is purposeful) means that the build mainly relies on crits to trigger init regen, especially in regards to Unload on the P/P.

When using SB, there’s no init problems. When using P/P and low on init, popping stealth and using the Stealth Attack usually gains enough init back that there aren’t too many times that the build finds itself completely out of init.

Also, in general, when fighting 2 or fewer mobs, P/P is the go-to set, whereas in groups (like dungeons and Fractals) and against 3 or more mobs, the SB is usually a better choice.

Its been pointed out to me that the way I stated these choices made it seem like they were the *best* choices for the weapons. This isn't quite the case. These are the ones I use because I am the most comfortable with them. It is perfectly acceptable to swap out the Sigil of Accuracy for Sigil of Perception (or Bloodlust if you feel the need to do so). Just keep in mind that in order to keep up the same 5% bonus to crit chance, you have to AVERAGE 13 stacks of the Sigil of Perception. It mostly comes down to player preference and skill level. Same thing goes for the Ruby Orb on the OH pistol.

HEAL/UTILITY SLOTS

Slot skills are a bit more open for two reasons. First is that slot skills are largely situational, generally swapping between them depending on where and what is being fought. In general running with at least 2 utilities that benefit from SA-I (20% CD reduction on Deception skills) makes it the most worthwhile.

Spoiler

Heal slot:

Hide in Shadow: A lot of builds use this heal skill because it has a lot of efficacy in a lot of different situations. This is the recommended one for this build because of the additional benefit of being a relatively reliable on-demand stealth.

Withdraw: This would probably be the second recommended heal as it provides a free evade, as well as another way to remove cripple, immobilize and chilled. With this build if you are standing still or slowed for any length of time, its a good way to end up dead.

Signet of Malice: It can work when paired with Unload from the P/P, but for burst healing/utility on this particular build, its not that useful.

The five utility slots that I personally rotate between are as follows:

Blinding Powder: The only utility that does seem to be a requirement for this build. Since neither P/P or SB have a consistent, on-demand stealth function, Blinding Powder is a good alternative. It particularly synergizes with P/P, especially when low on init.

Signet of Agility: This utility is more useful when running this build solo and using P/P for a lot of content because the extra precision helps with the init maintenance, which an Unload spam build can sometimes run into. Additionally, the condition removal is good because the build has low Vitality.

Signet of Shadow: Another utility that is more useful when running solo. The 25% passive speed boost can be the difference in having to evade or just being able to strafe/walk backwards when a mob gets too close.

iHouse (Shadow Refuge): This is one of the utilities that stays on the bar (in general) when running dungeons or fractals with a group. The stealth rezzes and ability to run past with this utility makes it a very good pick for groups.

Shadowstep: One would think that this utility is not all that great due to its longer (40s traited) CD, but when actually running with it, the utility of it becomes apparent. The 1200 range on it plus the return gives new meaning to the word ‘mobility’ for thieves. Being able to instantaneously teleport from one end of a room to the other is quite useful (and back again if trouble follows). Also the condition removal is a nice bonus.

The next few utilities are ones that can be used, but its more circumstantial than the first five:

Smoke Screen: This utility is very useful on certain Fractals and Dungeons, but unfortunately it does not synergize really well with the rest of the build, as it works better with something with a leap finisher, which is why it is under this section rather than the top section.

Caltrops: In case of emergencies where escape is necessary but things are surrounding you, the cripple is useful. Not highly recommended, but a possibility.

Roll for Initiative: This particular utility has good efficacy as well, but its main purpose is a burst of init regen, which this build doesn’t really have much issue with, so it is relegated to the “feasible, but situational” section. The evade and stun break is nice, but both of those can be fulfilled by Shadowstep.

Haste: Can be nice for some quick burst dmg through some quickened Unloads, but its very situational. If you have a good anchor and can live for a bit without dodges, then its becomes more attractive. Overall though it definitely fits in the “feasible, but situational”.

Scorpion Wire: Again, very situational and not much use in PvE. But if you want to run the build in WvW (which it hasn’t been tested in extensively), its one that may be useful in certain circumstances.

The other utilities just don’t really work with the build very well, but it could possibly be open to discussion with a build variant:

Assassin’s Signet, Infiltrator’s Signet, All Traps and Venoms

ARMOR & TRINKETS

Spoiler

Armor is standard for a dmg build, full Berserker’s for armor and trinkets with Ruby Orbs and Ruby Jewels in your slots. The build doesn’t have Ascended trinkets on there yet, but your “basic” Berserker/Berserker stats will do just fine.

These can certainly be changed out for Valk if the player needs a bit more survivability. I would STRONGLY advise Valk over and above Knights for two reasons:

The build already has quite a bit of prec and isn’t really going to benefit ALL that much (if we really wanted to buff it up some more, just plop on a Bowl of Butternut Squash Curry)from more prec.

For a dmg build, it already has WAY too much toughness (from SA) and putting more on there will just attract too much unwarranted attention.

Knights doesn’t have Crit Dmg on it, which is really where this build shines in its DPS...the ability to drop large crits on both Unload and Clusterbomb(and yes, I realize that this was 3 reasons, not 2 ).

TRAITS

Spoiler

(Credit for the description of the 30 points in Critical Strikes line goes to Phenn, borrowed from below)

“Thirty points in Critical Strikes is all but necessary in any crit build because it gives us access to Executioner (CS XI). The universal boost in damage will make finishing enemies a breeze. Additionally, First Strikes (Grandmaster minor trait) give a 10% damage boost when our Initiative is over 6. Any time we have to sit back on SB’s auto attack, the damage boost is very noticeable.

For the remaining Major traits, we’ll pick up CS V and CS IX. The former gives a 10% boost to pistol damage, and the latter increases damage for Unload. Both of these are critical for our build as we’ll depend on our pistols for single-target attacks and cleaning up low-health mobs.

If, when in a group setting, we find that we can capitalize on flanking, CS III can be swapped for CS IX as an across-the-board crit chance boost.”

The main reason for traiting so deep in SA is for the Power Shots (SA - VII) trait that gives us an additional 5% dmg on the shortbow. This may not seem like a whole lot, but it is definitely noticeable, especially when using Clusterbomb. Picking up Master of Deception (SA - I) is a logical and probably the best choice for the first major trait slot because the build utilizes quite a few deception skills. The final 5 points in SA is movable to anywhere that the player feels would help their playstyle, but the Might on stealth does increase the build’s overall dmg by a noticeable amount.

15 Points in Acrobatics (Acro II - Power of Inertia)

15 points in Acro is actually more for the minor trait Feline Grace because it essentially gives you an additional evade. Since the gear is all Berserker’s, this extra evade gives a nice little bit of cushion for those times where the player makes a mistake and mis-times the evade. Also, it works well with the major trait, Power of Inertia. With this combination it shouldn’t be difficult to sustain 3-5 stacks of Might. In conjunction with 25 points in SA and the minor trait there (Hidden Assassin), its generally doable to sustain 7-10 stacks of Might, by yourself.

CONSUMABLES (optional)

Spoiler

Consumables are largely optional, but the suggested ones are:

Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew which gives more Might because it stacks with the Might from Power of Inertia.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup for additional Prec and Crit dmg;

Plate of Truffle Steak for a flat increase to power and precision.

For the “utility” consumable, either power, prec or area specific works out fine, which more depends on where the player feels they are lacking.

PLAYSTYLE TIPS AND TRICKS

Just like most thief builds, there are some basics that will help increase your survivability by loads(and yes, I realize that some of these are "duh" statements, skip if you prefer, I won't be offended, I promise ):

Spoiler

Keep moving. This is pretty self explanatory. The longer you stay put in one place, the higher your chances are that you will get splatted by an errant AoE, mobs appearing from behind, or any other number of things. Even if it just means circle strafing around your enemy, on non-cleave, non-AoE hits, you can occasionally evade even without evading.

Watch for patterns in enemy attacks. Since the mobs are AI controlled, they will generally follow patterns depending on what kind of mob they are and what attacks they have at their disposal. The faster you learn these patterns, the greater your survivability will be. This is especially important playing a thief since the profession is in the lowest tier for base HP pool and can only wear medium armor.

This build utilizes Might on dodge (albeit not as well as Phenn’s, as you will see in his description below) so don’t be afraid to dodge just for the might and swiftness. Because you have Feline Grace, you will rarely find yourself out of endurance at the wrong time.

Timing. Work on timing your Unloads so you can take advantage of the full dmg, rather than having to evade in the middle of it. This is also important with your evades, even though you do have quite a few, timing them correctly will be most beneficial for you.

Don’t be afraid to use your SB in melee range. Sometimes firing Clusterbomb at close range and detonating it right away can be an effective AoE damage application. Also, when detonating the Clusterbomb on a single target, try to detonate it closer to the ground than usual in order to get the most effective explosion. The only time you shouldn’t be detonating your Clusterbomb is when you are trying to activate a combo field with the Blast finisher.

Blast finisher on the SB is amazing. Having an on-demand, (relatively) quick firing blast finisher can be invaluable in dungeon and fractal situations. Area weakness, retaliation, might are some of the ones that you can get on a consistent basis (retaliation if your anchor is a guardian, weakness from Choking Gas, and might if anyone has a fire field).

Finally, when using Blinding Powder with P/P, it seems that there is a slight delay between when the game thinks that Vital Shot (#1, auto attack on P/) ends and when it appears to end. If you are using Blinding Powder right after Vital Shot, it seems that you actually have to wait until the dmg numbers pop up on the mob, rather than right after the bullet leaves the barrel of your gun. The easy way around this is to simply turn off auto attack (ctrl + mouse 2 on the skill) so you can time it better.

With the recent changes to the Trickery line (6.25.13) effecting pistols quite a bit, I figured I would give a quick addition and rundown of two variant builds that I (with the help and contribution of others, as listed in this post here) came up with. Both these builds focus on P/P as their main set rather than SB and at time of posting have been demonstrated to be successful and useful in both testing as well as game-play.

Note: Both these builds use the same armor/trinket/weapon setup that is used on the above build, full Berserker everything. Also, any slot left blank is up to the player to decide what fits best there. One other thing to note is that the player has to be more aware of their initiative levels with these builds as P/P is a heavy init user and one of the dmg bonuses that comes from a Trickery build is from Lead Attacks where 1 init = +1% dmg. In order for the dmg bonus to pay off, the player must try to keep their init above 10 on average.

THE BUILDS

Spoiler

Build1 - This variant has an emphasis on using P/P while still holding true to the original build idea of making full use of a full bar of Deception utilities, which explains the 10 points in SA and 30 in Trickery rather than 15 in Acro.

Pros:

Deception skill CD is retained.

P/P is quite a bit more viable with the addition and update of Ricochet.

Some mobility is retained due to Thrill of the Crime and Bountiful Theft.

With the update to Steal (CD reduced), it makes Thrill of the Crime more viable.

Overall increase in dmg due to Lead Strikes and First Strikes (compared to 25 points in SA on the original build).

Cons:

Loss of some mobility due to no points in Acro, via Expeditious Dodger.

Loss of boon duration from Acro line.

Lower dmg due to the loss of might on dodge and might on stealth.

Lower stealth duration due to loss of points in SA.

Less innate survivability (Compared to the original build).

Build2 - This build is more focused on P/P and damage via that weapon-set, with SB taking a further backseat. It also does not have an emphasis on the Deception utilities.

Pros:

Realistically more dmg than that of Build1 and the original build above, due to Power of Inertia in addition to Lead Attacks and First Strikes.

Less of a reliance on stealth, more reliant on mobility.

Mobility can be increased if the player chooses to pick up Thrill of the Crime.

P/P is quite a bit more viable with the addition and update of Ricochet.

With the update to Steal (CD reduced), it makes Thrill of the Crime more viable.

Cons:

Less innate survivability.

Not able to take advantage of the CD reduction on Deception skills.

Less group utility due to the lesser focus on Deception skills.

Lower stealth duration due to loss of points in SA.

And there's the quick run-down on Trickery based, P/P focused ranged builds on the thief. The traits that are presented in the builds are relatively self explanatory and are mostly covered in the above posts. The only ones that aren't are the Trickery ones. The only Trickery trait that is mandatory for this type of build is Ricochet (T-X). Beyond that, they are mostly flavor for whatever the player decides to do. I actively picked Thrill of the Crime (T-V) and Bountiful Theft (T-VII) on the first of the two variants to help lessen the impact of getting rid of points in the Acro line. If the player feels that is unnecessary, then they are free to take any other traits that they feel fits their playstyle better. As with any build, it works the best to experiment and see what fits the way you play the best, and which one is the most fun!

Like Loperdos’ build above, the following build depends on positioning and evasion for survivability, and maintains range at all times. Similarly, the primary damage-dealer is P/P’s Unload with SB for AoE and general support. The build utilizes the Short Bow and Dual Pistols, Berserker equipment and weapons, and depends on Crit Damage for DPS. Our choice in traits, utilities, food, and sigils however, will maximize our dodging potential:

Feline Graces gives an extra dodge.

Healing gives Vigor with is a dodge every 5 seconds.

Signet of Agility gives two extra dodges.

Food increases endurance recharge with a flat increase of one dodge every 7.15 seconds.

Sigil on offhand pistol gives two extra dodges after every kill.

You can see that dodging becomes a critical component of our build--so use them, and use them often. We don’t have to save them for pure evasion, but can (and should) use them as often as possible.

Our build will utilize the same weapon setup as Loperdos’ above, with the exception of a change to sigils. We’ll still take a Sigil of Accuracy on our shortbow and one of pistols. But a very valid option is to, instead of a Ruby Orb on the offhand pistol, take a Sigil of Stamina. This particular sigil refills our endurance bar after every kill. Because our build relies so heavily on dodges, this setup will ensure that we have as many dodges as possible on tap at all times.

TRAITS15/30/0/25/0

The build actually follows the most balanced trait distribution available to thieves. It offers flexibility in traits across all weapon sets, making it suited for our purposes, and allowing a shift to other weapon sets if necessary.

Spoiler

15 in Deadly Arts (DA III - Mug)

Fifteen points in Deadly Arts gives us Lotus Poison (DA minor trait), which is the only important trait in the tree for our build. Since we’ll rely on the Short Bow for AoE, Lotus Poison makes our Choking Gas automatically apply and stack Weakness. And because we can spam Choking Gas with blast finishers to our hearts content, we can keep up Area Weakness nearly indefinitely.

This is good for two reasons:

It provides substantial support to groups running dungeons or fractals. It mitigates half of incoming, non-crit damage and will increase survivability for melee toons.

Since we’re a fragile ranged build, getting caught in melee can be our downfall. A quick AoE weakness will increase chances of survival by half.

It’s your choice for your major trait in this tree. Mug is powerful, and is usually my go-to.

Thirty points in Critical Strikes is all but necessary in any crit build because it gives us access to Executioner (CS XI). The universal boost in damage will make finishing enemies a breeze. Additionally, First Strikes (Grandmaster minor trait) gives a 10% damage boost when our Initiative is over 6. Any time we have to sit back on SB’s auto attack, the damage boost is very noticeable.

For the remaining Major traits, we’ll pick up CS III and CS IX. The former gives a flat increase of 7% crit chance when flanking, and the latter increases damage for Unload. Both of these are critical for our build as we’ll depend on our pistols for single-target attacks and cleaning up low-health mobs, as well as being constantly on the move.

If, we find that we can utilize the other damaging skills on the pistol (interrupts, body shot, etc.), we can take CS V which will increase damage from all non-dual pistol skills by 10%.

Twenty-five points in Acrobatics helps us do what thieves do best: evade. The first fifteen points give us swiftness on dodge, might on dodge (Acro II), and an extra dodge. The synergy should be obvious thus far. Our Master tier trait can be one of two: Take Acro III for Vigor-on-Heal. We’ll be dodging a lot in order to maintain might stacks and the bonus of Fluid Strikes (Grandmaster minor trait). Vigor helps us do that, and since Withdraw (the heal we’ll be taking) is an evade, we’ll have new dodges up fast. Alternatively, if we’re having trouble maintaining Initiative, we can take Acro IX giving us two extra Initiative every ten seconds.

Rationale for Taking Acrobatics over Shadow Arts

Perhaps the most (if not only) significant difference between Loperdos’ build and my own lies in the choice of the Acrobatics line over against the Shadow Arts line. I’ve opted for this shift for a few reasons. I must mention, however, that the shift by no means implies that the Shadow Arts line is less-than-useful. Loperdos has already outlined its impact on a ranged build quite well.

Instead, I’ve opted for an Acrobatics build for a few reasons. First, it gives us Vigor on Heal. This trait cannot be underestimated; for our purposes the primary way we’ll boost our damage is through might-stacking. But because we haven’t gone 25 points into the SA tree, we’ll have to get our might purely through dodges. With a strong uptime on Vigor, we’ll be able to get in a lot of dodging in order to build might, and we won’t have to “save” each dodge for those critical moments of evasion.

Furthermore, because we’re going to be using up endurance on a regular basis, we’ll have a near 100% uptime on Fluid Strikes, which is a flat increase on damage of 10%. This increase will compensate for any loss of damage by not taking the Power Shots trait in SA. Finally, going 25 points into Acrobatics gives a 25% boost to boon uptime, which will help in keeping might stacks up for as long as possible, as well as increasing uptime on Vigor.

UTILITY/HEAL SLOTS

Much like Loperdos, we’ll be taking utilities that complement our primary defense mechanic, but in our case we’ll emphasize dodging.

Spoiler

Heal Slot:

Withdraw: Because we make no investment in stealth with this build, Withdraw will form the center of our dodging defense. As Loperdos says, “It provides a free evade, as well as another way to remove cripple, immobilize and chilled. With this build if you are standing still or slowed for any length of time, its a good way to end up dead.” Because we gain Vigor every time we heal, Withdraw gives us: Evasion, cripple, immobilize, and chilled cleanse, just under half our health back, and more dodges.

Utilities (Some descriptions borrowed from Loperdos above.):

Slot One:

Shadowstep: One would think that this utility is not all that great due to its longer (40s traited) CD, but when actually running with it, the utility of it becomes apparent. The 1200 range on it plus the return gives new meaning to the word ‘mobility’ for thieves. Being able to instantaneously teleport from one end of a room to the other is quite useful (and back again if trouble follows). Also the condition removal is a nice bonus.

Roll for Initiative: An alternative to Shadowstep, Roll for Initiative provides a stun break, a gap-maker, and a condition cleanse for a few immobilizing conditions. Also, it provides a near-complete refill on Initiative. The 60 second CD on RfI makes it nearly as situational as Shadowstep, so depending on the situation, we can swap these two out for each other.

Slots Two and Three (from Loperdos):

Signet of Agility: This utility is more useful when running this build solo and using P/P for a lot of content because the extra precision helps with the init maintenance issues, which an Unload spam build can sometimes run into. Additionally, the condition removal is good because the build has low Vitality. For the purposes of an Acrobatic build, the SoA becomes powerful in that it allows for extra dodges.

Signet of Shadow: Another utility that is more useful when running solo. The 25% passive speed boost can be the difference in having to evade or just being able to strafe/walk backwards when a mob gets too close. Because we’re trying to avoid contact with any enemy at any time, this signet is very useful. The blind functions well as a panic-button when knocked down or stunned.

iHouse (Shadow Refuge): This is one of the utilities that stays on the bar (in general) when running dungeons or fractals with a group. The stealth rezzes and ability to run past with this utility makes it a very good pick for groups. Even though we’re not taking any stealth-buffing traits, iHouse is a key support skill to take.

Slot three is really a flexible utility slot that is open for whatever may be necessary for the instance or group’s demands. But we will always have a mobility skill on the bar (Shadowstep or RfI) and a Signet (Agility or Shadow).

ARMOR & TRINKETS

Spoiler

There is no change between Loperdos’ build and this one when it comes to Armor and Trinkets. Survivability is dependant entirely on mobility, so we’ll go full Berserker’s. See Loperdos’ section for advice on building in survivability.

CONSUMABLES (critical for this build)

Spoiler

Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew is a key component to this build, because we’ll rely on stacking might through dodges. Additionally, the food provides a 40% recharge buff to our endurance, which will keep our dodges up at maximum. Keep in mind, this does not stack with Vigor, but it does allow us some flexibility with how we use our heal and when we time Vigor.

PLAYSTYLE TIPS AND TRICKS

The following are a few tips on playing this build in order to gain maximum effectiveness:

Spoiler

Dodge into battle. With the minor trait Fluid Strikes, we want to have our endurance only partially filled at all times. This gives us a flat 10% damage bonus that forms the foundation of much of our striking power. So it’s best to open every encounter with a dodge, and keep dodging throughout.

Always keep endurance at just over half-full. Never dodge twice in a row unless absolutely necessary. With Feline Grace and our Vigor boosts, this shouldn’t be a problem. Time each dodge so that you’re never out of dodges, but never let your endurance go back up to full. Keeping your endurance in this middle range is the key to the build, and takes the most getting used to.

Never stop moving. This may seem obvious as a thief, but it’s a huge temptation to stop moving when the attention is on the tank in your dungeon group, or you’re trying to time cluster bomb detonation. A couple of things happen when we stop moving: First, we forget to keep dodging which causes a drop off in our might stacks. Second, we often give up Side Strikes, which is a drop in our crit chance. Last, risk getting one-shotted with AoE, or big ranged attacks. Short story: keep moving.

Don’t be afraid to pop signets. They’re on the utility bar for more than just their passive. Learning when and where to use the additional endurance refill or the blind is important.

And there you have it. The two builds put together by Phenn and myself. Thank you for taking the time to read it, as I know its a long post with lots of descriptions. I'm wordy, so shoot me. As time goes on I will be editing, updating and contributing to any discussion that comes from this particular thread. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to in-game message me/add me as a friend: Loperdos.7924.

For those of you that have worried about the balancing of skills between PvE and PvP, you'll be glad to hear that ArenaNet has plans to continue to split skills as necessary:

So you guys know, we already split some skills. And, what’s most pertinent to the current thread, we plan to do this even more.

When we first shipped, it was awesome to have a lot of the balance be the same between PvE/WvW/PvP. But, as you guys have really started to push the game types to their limits, classes and specs that work in one areas of the game are sometimes ineffectual in others.
Due to this, we’ll have to do more splitting of skills to better balance the various areas of the game.

TL:DR – We already do this, and we’ll be using it even more in order to balance the different areas of the game effectively.

Have you ever visited the Grand Piazza in Lion’s Arch, gazed up at the Lion’s Court, and thought to yourself, “I wish there was a little corner in Tyria that could take me back to a simpler time”? Well, if so, you’re in luck! We were given the supreme opportunity to preview the Super Adventure Box last week, and now we're going to give you all an idea of what can you expect. It's sure to make quite a few of you squirm with nostalgic feels.

Below you'll find an overview of our adventures, as well as a list of rewards, and several tips and tricks. If you have any further questions about content you're about to read, just let us know by posting!

“It started out as a fun side project idea,” laughed Colin Johanson, Game Director at ArenaNet. <em>“Originally, we were going to have a laugh with a fake 8-bit update, but the more the team worked on it the more we realized we had something really cool on our hands. We figured; the gaming community are really going to love this, let’s expand on the concept of the Living World in GW2 and make it for real.”

Getting Started
For the entire month of April, you and your friends can step into a whole new world. By now, those of you who frequent the lovely Rata Sum will have noticed a giant blue box stationed near the city's Magustan Waypoint. From there you'll want to speak with Moto - the visionary and mastermind behind the project. Aside from being the gatekeeper, Moto sells a wide variety of items in exchange for baubles and bauble bubbles; the new coin-like currency found all across the Adventure Box (we'll go over their acquisition later on). Once you've had your fill of window-shopping, you'll be allowed to enter the box. Make sure to grab a Super Coin from the vending machine at the gate to proceed!

(What's that, you say? A backpack cover that you haven't seen yet? Well, now you have!)

A Whole New World
Load up your Aladdin soundtrack, because you're about to enter a whole new world. From the revamped UI right down to the ridiculously catchy chip-tune music tracks, everything has been remixed into an 8-bit style. Upon first glance, some of you might think this is a glorified jumping puzzle. Never fear! While this has a few jumping puzzle elements, consider this a Jumping Adventure. As you progress through the simulation, you'll encounter classic video game moments combined with jumping puzzle scenarios. Now, I know I have friends who would rather floss the toes of Tequatl all day long than even set foot near a jumping puzzle. If any of you are in a similar situation, there is an easy mode that bypasses those tricky situations (see happy cloud in lobby area). However, my advice is to stick near a friend and play follow the leader. This isn't the Mad King's Clock Tower we're talking about here. Give it a few tries and before you know it you'll be up to your belly in baubles.

Those baubles won't acquire themselves, though. In order to build up this new currency, you'll need to hack, slash, poke and smash your way through the world. The most common color bauble is blue, and can be found just about anywhere you can imagine. However, if you explore a bit deeper you just might find some other colors, which in turn are worth significantly more. Initially, your character is limited to carrying 250 baubles, but expansion to a higher limit is a possibility in later worlds.

As mentioned earlier, baubles are your ticket to several new rewards both inside the realm of Super Adventure Box and in Tyria. The former is spent inside the several merchant shops set up throughout the world on trinkets and tools that will make your travels much more convenient. For example, the shovel can be purchased from Tom Nook the store's shopkeeper for 100 baubles. Once purchased, the shovel skill will become permanently unlocked on your character's skill bar, even if you leave and come back later. You'll be able to easily regain your investment by locating the several hidden dig spots; some more inconspicuous than others.

While trekking across this 8-bit paradise, those of who are particularly nostalgic of this style and era of gaming will find the developers feel exactly the same way. Outside the change in scenery and chip-tune goodness, one of the most noticeable changes is the lack of a mini-map. Aside from the occasional finger point, you'll have to rely solely on remembering what you've done and where you've done it. You'll be presented with several backtracking opportunities throughout the instance to reach 100% completion just like the good ol' days of Zelda and Metroid on the NES.

Enemies and Obstacles
Moto is one asura who recognizes the importance of good combat training. Armed with your trusty wooden stick, you'll encounter several different types of classic enemies. In the beginning, you'll have a few mild sparring sessions with your neighborhood monkeys and turtles, but as you progress further these enemies will evolve in ways that will test even the fiercest dragon slayer. Turtles will be flipped, alligators smacked, and crazy monkey samurais will be out for blood. There's even a spider pit - or as I like to call it, NOPE.

Aside from the 8-bit Nopes, you'll often find yourself hopping through swamps and treetops to reach the end of the level. In traditional jumping puzzle fashion, players will progress by jumping across logs, rocks, bridges and other pieces of landscape. Luckily, fall damage has been turned off, so leave your broken armor woes at the door and take some risks. Checkpoints have also been implemented sporadically throughout to allow for a bit more forgiveness and leniency. Don't get me wrong though. One wrong jump can have you on the ground again, or in some cases something worse.

It's important to know exactly how both enemies and platforming obstacles work. While it may seem like a particular creature has beaten you in every way imaginable, step back and analyze what you're facing. Just like the everything outside of the Box in Tyria, every enemy can be beaten, and there's no jumping puzzle that cannot be solved. Part of the fun will be figuring all of this out alone, so we won't give away all of the dev's secret tricks (yet)!

Gem Store
Along with the rewards you can purchase from Moto, there will be a few items that you can get from the gem store, as well. You'll be able to purchase a new set of mini-pets, a Super Adventure Box o' Fun, and a flashy PvP finisher.

Tips and Tricks

Partying up with friends is encouraged, but not required. You can solo this if you want.

Kill the rabbits. Go on! They're real friendly.

Be on the lookout for mini-jumping puzzles inside the Adventure Box.

Don't be stingy. Baubles are everywhere.

Buy the bauble wallet upgrade. Any baubles you collect beyond your limit will vanish into thin air (likely into the greedy wallet of Zomorros).

It is possible to acquire more than three health hearts.

If you're in it for the baubles, don't leave keys behind! Keys can be used as offensive weapon so you won't be left defenseless are you carry it.

I'm just going to say it now: you're going to love Super Adventure Box. And not just because it's a kick-back to old school video games, but because it's really fun. ArenaNet, you have really outdone yourselves with this one. I can't wait to see what types of events you guys think up next.

If you're bothered by the text clutter on the screen, you can turn of character nameplates in the options menu. Once this has been turned off, you can still hover over a character to view their name and title.

Overview:
This guide should provide you a starting point for running Guardian in an organized dungeon group that focuses on speed runs. Because of the nature of both traits and utilities, Guardian is the best "tanky" class to use as an anchor in organized dungeon runs. What this means is that typically in speed runs, you want one class that has higher toughness then the other 4 classes, and is built to survive while holding agro without giving up too much dps. This is what this build allows you to do, while giving the other party members freedom to run full berserker to focus on DPS. In my personal groups, we run 1 guard/3 war/1 mesmer as seen from my other guides and dungeon walkthroughs, while in high level fractals where reflections are key, this can be changed to 2 guard/2 war/1 mes. Below I will explain the reasoning behind my choices, and you also have the option to watch my various dungeon guides from different class perspectives to see how it all works out in a real world setting.
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Thanks to gw2buildcraft, you can now see all my gear and traits in the link above. Instead of listing everything out, I will explain why I went knights armor, berserker ascended gear, and list my full weapon choices below.

As far as gear goes, the reason you go for Berserker Ascended gear is because it has the highest crit damage ratios besides exquisite jewels, per below:

5 stat points - upgrade slot of trinkets and backpack

7 points - Ascended Back Piece

8.5 stat points - Ascended Rings

8.7 stat points - Ascended Earrings

9.4 stat points - Ascended Amulet

10 stat points- traits (not an equipment, but listed for comparison)

12 stat points - glove, shoulder and boots

12.8 stat points - 1H weapons and amulet

13.33 stat points - Earring

14 stat points - Backpack (rare version from guild armorsmith)

14.22 stat points - 2H weapons

14.4 stat points - Coat

16 stat points - Ring, helm and legging

What this means is, you lose less minor stat points by going for berserker gear higher on the list if you are making a balanced build with knights/berserker pieces. With Knights weapons, I also have the ability to switch to ascended berserker earrings in the future when they are released, while still maintaining close to 3k armor and most likely having good berserker ratios still.

Soldier Runes are one of the best runes in my opinion, by having three AoE shouts which also remove conditions, it really frees up the utility slots of the other 4 members of your group. A big part of being a successful guardian, is watching that party window and knowing when to use shouts for both condition removal and also minimizing damage. These runes are also extremely valuable when running through trash of various dungeons, especially harder runs like in TA or Arah.

The following list are the weapons I use which are statted based on the situation/combination I use them in:
Greatsword with Power/Prec/Toughness and 5% crit chance sigil
Hammer with Power/Prec/Toughness and 5% crit chance
Staff with Prec/Vit/Healing and 50% energy on swap
Scepter with Power/Prec/Tough and 50% energy on swap
Focus with Power/Prec/Crit and 5% crit chance
Shield with Power/Tough/Vit and 5% crit chance
Sword with Power/Prec/Crit and Bloodlust +10 power stacks
Mace with Power/Tough/Vit and 30% chance to heal
I don't have/use a torch.

Knights gear (Power/Prec/Toughness) can be crafted or comes from SE and Arah dungeon tokens.
Berserker gear (Power/Prec/Crit Dmg) can be crafted or comes from CoF, CoE, and Arah dungeon tokens.

The reason I took the sigils I did in the weapons I did are because of the situations and combinations I use them in.

Greatsword and Hammer with 5% crit chance are their for both increased damage from criticals, and also because crit chance synergizes well with life steal food and AH.

Staff and Scepter with Energy Sigils are so I always have that extra dodge available when I need to get out of melee range. This allows me to instantly dodge + heal in any situation, sit back and stack might stacks with staff 4 (more heals) or range dps with scepter in the rare instance I need to get out of melee range because of low health.

By keeping the 5% crit chance runes on my offhand weapons, I will always have 5% crit with my 1-hand weapons.

Now this gear isn't set in stone for this build, this is just what I've found from play experience works for me and my group. Around 3k armor allows the Guardian to maintain agro from the 4 other berserker classes who have ~2100 armor (or less in the mesmer's case). The lower your armor value falls, the harder it is to maintain agro. 3k is a good balance with the current ascended gear that allows you to draw agro and still do respectable damage as the tanky anchor role.

If you need more survivability or don't have ascended gear, you can always go more knights jewelery. If you WvW alot, then arguably P/V/T gear is better then berserker as well, where more health is key and berserker gear on a guardian isn't really ideal. It just depends on your playstyle and what you enjoy doing.

Also for any high crit % class, Omnomberry Ghosts/Pies (or even lesser versions like Mixed Berry and Blackberry) are a key component to survival. <Edit> This food now has an internal cooldown of 1s, meaning you can only heal at most, once every second, which realistically, is probably more along the lines of ~1.5s on average. It is still the best food for getting back health in a high crit build though, so I still use it on all my classes for harder encounters. For pure damage, something like the 100 power/70 precision food will be better, or other pure damage foods when you don't need healing.
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Basics:
First off, the actual build is a typical boon/shout build that heals. This is NOT a pure support build, it is a tanky DPS build whose primary focus is to deal moderate damage while relieving pressure from your party as the anchor. Many people don't seem to realize how valuable Altruistic Healing is in a group setting, while both allowing you to passively support through shouts, soak damage, and still deal significant amounts of damage yourself.

The first thing you want is enough health to survive conditions and large spikes, but not spec too much health where it dimishes your effective hp from healing. In PvE vitality on gear isn't required, because of the lower amount of conditions in most instances and the fact that most large damage moves can be avoided through dodging. The toughness from all gear slots really helps to increase your e-hp because of the huge amount of heals the guardian has making toughness more valuable once you get an adequate hp pool. In addition, you have a large amount of power for direct damage and retaliation damage, plus precision (and bonus from the major trait) to push your crit chance up to levels where you will apply might stacks and life steal procs from crit a good amount of the time.

As far as Greatsword vs Hammer is concerned, they are good for different reasons. If you know you won't need ranged weapons at all, then having both on swap is ideal. In high level fractals if you run 2 guardians, you always want one with Hammer and one with GS, with Scepter/Focus or Shield on your offhand.

Greatsword's strength comes from it's AoE pull, the blind/leap, and the burst heal from Whirling Wrath coupled with Life Steal food.
Hammer's strength comes from near 100% protection uptime, more sustained healing from the symbol ticking on a 5 melee group, and Ring of Warding for certain pulls to interrupt groups of mobs.

Learning when each weapon is valuable is just something that comes from playing Guardian and getting your own experience. I will say that I primarily use Greatsword, Hammer, Staff, and Scepter/Focus and don't really touch the other weapons that often.
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Traits:
The main focus of this build is Altruistic Healing in the Valor Line. This coupled with the more crit based traits in the Honor line, and a high crit chance/toughness build, allows you to be the anchor for your group so that the other 4 members can focus on DPS.

As you can see, we have a large amount of ways to keep sustained healing. If you are able to time your dodge rolls (also why I use superior sigil of energy on certain weapons) you can "tank" for a good portion of time, including protection boons.

The Honor line focuses more on cooldowns and utilizing crits through Empowering Might and Vigorous precision. You also have the option to run Pure of Voice which stacks with runes of the soldier in the rare case you need even more condition removal.

The main reason you put your last 10 points in virtues is for the excellent options that it gives you for reflects, which are key in a few named dungeons and a variety of fractals, especially at 30+. The added benefit is that all your virtues proc boons on your group, which is nice with AH as well.

Skills:
Shouts will be the primary utility skills that you will be using. They synergize with AH to give you heals, provide valuable defensive boons for the entire party, and remove conditions with Soldier Runes.

The two shouts you will have on most of the time are 'Hold the Line' and 'Stand Your Ground'. These are both low cooldown to utilize condition removal, and 'Stand Your Ground' especially is valuable for a variety of boss and trash run encounters to prevent yourself from being knocked down or stunned.

Your third utility slot will be situational with either reflects, or 'Retreat'/'Save Yourselves'. Retreat should be used for trash running and for any fight where an extra Aegis would be extremely useful, like the Destroyer in CoE 3. 'Save Yourselves' is great for taking multiple conditions from your party, as a 2nd stun breaker, or for any fights where you really don't need an extra Aegis for the group and you find yourself holding more agro where the boon uptime would be more beneficial.

As far as reflects go, your primary options are either Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger (Spirit Shield). In general, you will be using Wall of Reflection most of the time, because it actually reflects damage and has a shorter cooldown. On a few fractals, you will want both wall and shield up, which is most prevalent in the Harpy fractal. 100% reflection uptime from 2 guardians makes fractals like the harpy and shaman fractal extremely easy, which is one huge benefit of guardians in your group. Because Spirit Shield can now take damage and be destroyed, you do need to be smarter in it's placement so it will still absorb projectiles but not be hit by melee attacks.

There could be some areas I'm forgetting, but for the most part, those are the key areas where reflects are valuable. Part of learning the Guardian class is just knowing when you will need to swap skills for certain situations, which really applies to all classes.
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Conclusion:
This is obviously not the only way to play guardian, and for many people may not even be the "best." There are many other viable guardian builds based on a situation or playstyle. From my personal experience though, I believe this is the "best" build for me. It is highly flexible, does good damage, provides excellent support for a speed run group running 4 berserker classes, and can be used for a variety of settings.

Hopefully this will help some other guardians out, especially for running some of the harder dungeons in the game.

Mike O'Brien: "We founded ArenaNet to innovate, so Guild Wars 2 is our opportunity to question everything, to make a game that defies existing conventions. If you love MMOs, you'll want to check out Guild Wars 2, and if you hate MMOs, you'll really want to check out Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 takes everything you love about Guild Wars 1 and puts it into a persistent world that's got more active combat, a fully-branching, personalized storyline, a new event system to get people playing together, and still no monthly fees."

Daniel Dociu: "The look of Guild Wars 2 is stylized. We're going for a painterly, illustrated aesthetic. Everything in our world feels handcrafted and artisanal. We treat our environments as if they are characters themselves."

Colin Johanson: "When you look at the art in our game, you say 'Wow, that's visually stunning. I've never seen anything like that before,' and then when you play the combat in our game, you say 'Wow, that's incredible. I've never seen anything like that.' In most games, you go out, and you have really fun tasks, occasionally, that you get to do, and the rest of the game is this boring grind to get to the fun stuff. 'I swung a sword. I swung a sword again. Hey! I swung it again.' That's great. We just don't want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun. We want to change the way that people view combat."

Ree Soesbee: "As a structure, the MMO has lost the ability to make the player feel like a hero. Everybody around you is doing the same thing you are doing. The boss you just killed respawns ten minutes later. It doesn't care that I'm there."

Colin Johanson: "You'll get quest text that tells you 'I'm being attacked by these horrible things,' and it's not actually happening. In the game world, these horrible centaurs are standing around in a field, and you get a quest step that says 'Go kill ten centaurs.' We don't think that's OK. You see what's happening. You see centaurs running to the trading post, knocking the walls down, burning and killing the merchants."

Ree Soesbee: "We do not want to build the same MMO everyone else is building, and in Guild Wars 2, it's your world. It's your story. You affect things around you in a very permanent way."

Colin Johanson: "Cause and effect: A single decision made by a player cascades out in a chain of events."

Ree Soesbee: "You're meeting new people whom you will then see again. You're rescuing a village that will stay rescued, who then remember you. The most important thing in any game should be the player. We have built a game for them."

I know you said you think the manifesto didn't lie. Other people would suggest quite the opposite. I red-bolded the parts that are the typical suspects in these threads.

Last, it is our prerogative to discuss the game however we feel. Many of the people here making complaints still play the game. We are allowed to voice our opinion. You trying to diminish that by saying we are like jilted lovers is your opinion, and it has no factual bearing on whether we can express our opinions or not. If you don't like it, you don't have to read about it.

I would not get too worked up about it. If they only know how to run a dungeon with their cookie cutter 100b spam then they may not be able to adapt to difficult situations and will probably just leave if challenged.

There are many fine players of many different professions out there and I'm sure they will be willing to take other profession pugs into dungeons.

No, the game hasn't changed much yet. I wouldn't bother with others' opinions on where the game has gone lately. You'll get those who defend the game until death who will tell you nothing's wrong and those who enjoy complaining as much as possible who will tell you it will never get better and can only die from here. Just look at recent patch notes and see what additions have been made. Or log in? It's not as if you're paying extra money to jump back into the game.